There they stand four-square to the blast, the slate-roofed farmhouses of Lakeland, chimney smoke shredded by storm. How walkers welcome the sight of their cheery lights when lost on the heights in gathering darkness. At last a sign of life to make for when they had given up hope.

Few places are more welcoming than inside the kitchen of such a domicile, where lost souls soon recover at the table, with a flag floor underfoot, a roaring fire nearby and a mug of tea to hand. There is nothing fancy about such a farmstead, traditionally built with rubble walls on a base of rough hewn stones with little mortar and plastered over and whitewashed.

But pity the walkers benighted on the skyline who always see the lights below as salvation, only for crags, invisible from above, to invite disaster for anyone who tries to descend them in darkness or at twilight. Middlefell farm at the head of Langdale and Seathwaite farm, similarly placed in Borrowdale, are just two examples where through the ages walkers have perished, tumbling down the fellside trying to make for such apparent sanctuaries.

Just last week climbers with night-lights on their helmets were drawn by the lights of Seathwaite as they descended from climbing Raven Crag Gully in Combe Ghyll. Thankfully, they sensed danger and retraced their steps in time from just above the brink.

And now that danger is exacerbated as fell runners try the Midwinter Bob Graham 24 Hours Round, which takes place around 21 December. Just a few protagonists have completed this arduous trip starting from and ending at Keswick Moot Hall. Daylight is limited to around seven hours for the 66-mile journey over 42 peaks, and the route passes such farms bulwarked by cliffs where a seasonal sign on their rooftops might say in lights: Beware, crags!